Sophie: The Final Verdict

t was 26 December 1996 when we arrived in West Cork to cover the recent murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Our man on the ground was Eoin (Ian) Bailey. His level of detail on the case showed extraordinary insight—I was completely taken in. But when the scales fell from my eyes weeks later, it was the shock of my journalistic career. Suddenly, everything that had been eluding me about this dreadful case made perfect sense. I knew with blazing clarity that I had held the gaze of a pitiless destroyer in the immediate aftermath of murder.

Ian Bailey, the prime suspect in the brutal West Cork murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, died outdoors in January 2024, never having faced trial in Ireland. His death reopens a crime that shocked the nation in 1996, along with the deep divisions that have split society over his guilt or innocence.

Sophie: The Final Verdict by Senan Molony tells a remarkable story that could not until now be revealed. Senan Molony, the first national crime correspondent at the scene, recounts his growing unease at Bailey’s behavior, leading to the shocking moment when Bailey—who had been helping cover the story—was arrested for the very murder. This insider’s account covers the infamous early days of a doomed investigation and the astonishing years that followed, as Bailey, a violent misogynist and pathological liar, escaped trial in his adopted country despite compelling evidence.

Including interviews with Sophie’s family, key garda investigators, local witnesses, and Bailey himself, Sophie: The Final Verdict sets out the full facts and dismantles Bailey’s main defence that he didn’t know Sophie. It unpacks commonly held myths about the case, misinformation often seeded by Bailey, and brings to light astonishing new witness testimony of confessions to the murder, along with fresh evidence of guilt.

Though Bailey was tried in absentia in Paris and sentenced to 25 years, he enjoyed full freedom after Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to put his fate before an Irish jury. This book lets the full evidence speak.